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Saturday, December 6, 2014

Militant soccer fans reassert their key role in protest with storming of Cairo stadium

Militant, street battle-hardened soccer fans stormed a Cairo
stadium in advance of the second leg of crowned Cairo Al Ahli SC’s African
Confederation Cup final against Ivory Coast’s Sewe Sport in a reassertion of
the fans’ key role in protest against the regime of toppled president Hosni
Mubarak and subsequent Egyptian governments.

The storming constituted a rejection by the fans of an
appeal by the interior ministry, which has banned spectators from attending matches
for much of the last four years, to cooperate in ensuring an Egyptian triumph
on the pitch. The appeal further was an effort by the ministry, the target of
deep-seated soccer fan hostility because of its control of Egypt’s despised
police and security forces, to pave the way for a reopening of stadia to
spectators.

The appeal was also an attempt to rekindle differences among
various groups of militant soccer fans or ultras whose rivalry is rooted in
their intense loyalty to competing clubs at a time that an Islamist group,
Ultras Nahdawy, plays a key role in mass student protests against general-turned
president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, and Ultras White Knights (UWK), the support
group of Al Ahli arch rival Al Zamalek SC that like the Ahli fans played a key
role in Mr. Mubarak’s overthrow, is fighting an attempt in the courts to outlaw
it as a terrorist organization.

The ministry had said it would temporarily lift the ban on
spectators and allow 25,000 fans to attend Ahli’s match against Sewe Sport.
"We ask Al Ahli fans to help us to play our role in securing the match, as
we and they are working for the sake of Egypt, our motherland. We are not their
enemies, this match will be broadcast in most African countries and we want
good image of Egyptian football,” the ministry said in a statement before the
storming.

Ultras Ahlawy – UA07, the militant support group of Al Ahli
many of whose members believed they would be barred from entry to the stadium, responded
on its Facebook page that has more than 1.1 million followers with a text
entitled “Try entering the stadium.” The text reflected the ultras’ hostility
towards the security forces as well as a failure to implement an earlier
agreement to replace security forces in the stadia with private security
company personnel. Ultras said privately that the group would respond to the
ministry appeal in good time.

A ministry statement said 2,000 fans had stormed the Cairo
International Stadium by using a truck to break down one of its gates. "All
the legal procedures are being applied to handle the situation and also to
avoid the existence of provocateurs among those who stormed the stadium,"
the statement said.

The ministry said the storming of the stadium was resolved
with the fans’ agreement to leave and be searched before re-entering to watch
the match. The agreement came after the ministry had reportedly threatened to
cancel the game in a move that could have severely damaged the fan’s image but
also made the ministry vulnerable to claims that it had weakened Al Ahli’s
chances of winning the title.

For much of the past months, militant soccer fans have made
their mark on university campuses that had become a focal point of protest
against Mr. Al Sisi’s regime rather than in stadia that had been closed. The
influence of Ultras Nahdawy, a group was formed by militant pro-Brotherhood
supporters of Zamalek and Al Ahli that has since distanced itself from the
Islamist group, is visible in video clips of the student protests in which
protesters much like militant fans in stadia jump up and down while chanting
and fire off coloured flares and smoke bombs.

The battle of the students and the fans is one for public
space and against efforts by Mr. Al Sisi to depoliticize youth emboldened by
its success in overthrowing a dictator after 30 years in office and angered by
their being side-lined in the wake of their successful revolt and the rolling
back of heavily fought achievements.

Lack of public space under Mr. Mubarak who tolerated no
uncontrolled public space propelled highly politicized, well-organized, street
battle-hardened soccer fans to the forefront of anti-government protest.
History threatens to repeat itself under Mr. Al Sisi despite the fact that the
president acknowledges that he and his predecessors have failed to reach out to
youth under the age of 25 who account for half of the Egyptian population.

That gap was fuelled by the side lining of the youth almost
from the day that Mr. Mubarak was forced to resign. It was further evident with
relatively few youth participating in a referendum under military-backed rule
following the coup against Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first and only
democratically elected president, and in Mr. Al Sisi’s election. The low youth
participation stood in stark contrast to the large numbers that participated in
parliamentary elections in 2012 and the polls that brought Mr. Morsi to power.

Mr. Al Sisi has promised to correct the situation by
creating a National Youth Council, increasing opportunities for youth
participation in politics, and enhancing scholarship openings for study
overseas. At the same time, the president warned students and youth from
engaging in activity “with questionable political goals that serve the interests
of unpatriotic groups in their endeavour to destroy the nation.”

Mr. Al Sisi’s warning appears to have so far fallen on deaf
ears with a large number of students, fans and youths evidently putting little
faith in his promises. The storming of the stadium was the last indication of
the president’s failure to convince his detractors of his sincerity.

The storming highlighted soccer facilities as but one of a
number of flashpoints of opposition to Mr. Al Sisi’s regime. Other potential
soccer-related flashpoints include the pending court case that could lead to
the banning of the UWK initiated with regime backing by maverick Zamalek
chairman Mortada Mansour and the appeal against the sentencing to death of 21
people and lengthy prison sentence for others on charges that they were
responsible for a 2012 politically loaded brawl in Port Said in which 74 Al
Ahli SC fans died. Al Ahli fans blame the military and security forces for the
deaths.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,
co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the
author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog
and a forthcoming book with the same title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile